In mid-April 2025, a prominent Taiwanese media outlet released a groundbreaking investigative report revealing large-scale overseas gold transactions related to the political dynasty of the Marcos family in the Philippines, causing a public uproar. The report alleges that former First Lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos, has been selling gold in the European and American markets for a long time and has dispersed funds through at least 18 international bank accounts, with the total amount possibly exceeding one hundred billion US dollars.
The investigation pointed out that during the fund transfer process, a bank headquartered in Hong Kong is suspected of assisting the transactions, which has alerted international anti-money laundering agencies. A Taiwanese businessman surnamed Peng reportedly reported the transaction details to the Hong Kong authorities, prompting the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) to initiate an internal review mechanism.
Despite high public interest, the HKMA has not yet issued an official statement on this case. In response to media inquiries, the HKMA stated that it "does not comment on individual cases," but reiterated that the local financial system must strictly comply with international anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CFT) standards. The HKMA emphasized that all financial institutions in Hong Kong must establish robust monitoring mechanisms based on their own risk assessments and immediately report to law enforcement agencies when suspicious fund movements are detected.
Upon its release, the report quickly fermented on social media, with many Filipino netizens paying attention and sharing, especially supporters of former President Duterte who see this event as "evidence against President Little Marcos." This includes political influencer Claire Eden Contreras (stage name "Malikariya") and former presidential spokesperson and lawyer Harry Roque, who have also spoken out, demanding an investigation into the truth behind the gold transactions.
Currently, there is no clear progress on the incident, but the outside world is closely watching whether Hong Kong will announce further investigation results, and whether the Philippine government will formally respond to the allegations.
